R&D conversion cylinder

A long while back, I came across a Euroarms 58 Remington repro in a second hand store, in sad shape, that included a R&D conversion cylinder that didn't fit. But for $50 for the set, how could I say no? I'm finally getting around to undoing the terrible attempt by the previous owner to "modernize" it with poorly dovetailed modern sights, etc. and getting it tuned up, prettied up, and timed. The gun itself is still pretty solid, just ugly. The conversion cylinder is in great shape, likely due to not fitting the pistol, though some light drag marks tells me it fit something at one time, though not likely this particular gun. It's just a hair too long to fit inside the cylinder space. It's the old style that has the hammer notches between the firing pins, which from my research is no longer made. It looks like I can shave a hair off the face of the forcing cone to make it work, but most likely will just leave things as is and pick up a Pietta 58 R to use it in. Would appreciate any thoughts someone may have on this as well as any good resources to learn about fitting these.

My curiosity though is about the conversion cylinder. It is marked under the cap with T P R&D. The P I am assuming is for Pietta, the R&D is obvious. Anyone have an idea what the T stands for? Taylors maybe? I'm not as familiar with conversion cylinders as I'd like to be.

Hello Faelwolf,

Sorry, I can't help with the markings.
But rather then opening up the frame by removing some of the forcing cone,
I'd personally fit the cylinder to the frame leaving the possibility to use the percussion cylinder.
It's just me, but it should help hold a little value and keep it a Cap & Ball revolver.

AntiqueSledMan.

Tit or tat - fit the cylinder to the euro arms and you will probably nix being able to use it in a Pietta . . .

Fit the Euroarms frame to the cylinder and you might nix being able to use the C & B cylinder if there is too much cylinder gap after altering the breech end of the barrel . . .

So which is more valuable to you? The cylinder or the pistol?

I have six '58 Remingtons - 5 revolvers and a revolting carbine - Pietta and Uberti - 36 and 44. All of my Howell conversion cylinders have slid right in and worked perfectly right out of the box.

I guess what I'm saying is - and there is nothing wrong with a Euroarms revolver - do you want to end up with the Euro strictly being a "conversion" - or use the cylinder in a new Pietta and have the option of using both revolvers as C & B revolvers yet be able to also use the cylinder in the new Pietta for cartridges? Or, fix up the cobbled up Euro and then sell it and use the $$ towards a new Pietta that will work with the conversion cylinder as it is?\

Only you know what is best for your circumstances. Good luck - would love to see a photo of the Euro to see what your working with and how you fix the former owner's gunsmithing work.

Appreciate the responses! After opening it up and looking at the internals, this is going to be a bit more of a project gun than I initially thought. Going to just get it back to being safe and reliable, clean it up, and keep the conversion cylinder for a Pietta in the future. This one will take a while, and likely is not economically feasible, but it will be fun to work on it here and there as a "rainy day" project, just to see how it turns out. I'll take a few before and after pics for you all and post them when I'm done. Definitely not going to alter the conversion cylinder.